1. What is your ecological footprint? (That is, if everyone lived like you, how many earths would it take to support the world population?) 5.76 Earths
2. As the world population grows, how will this impact the amount of resources (food, electricity, water, etc.) each person can consume and still remain within the sustainability of our planet? That is, what lifestyle changes will we need to make in order to ensure there is enough food and energy to sustain everyone? As the population grows, each person using these resources so frequently and a lot more use of them, there will be a more demand for all of these to survive.
3. What is the IPCC? What does it do? Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, The IPCC is the world’s leading authority on the science of climate change
4. Which climates require the most energy and the least energy on average to live in? (Give an example of a country for each) The U.S. uses more energy than any other country, is the biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emitter of all the industrialized nations, and second only to China in overall global emissions. It is also the largest and fastest growing developed nation worldwide.
About 80 percent of China’s electricity is produced by plants burning coal, which releases more heat-trapping gases than most major fuel sources for power generation.
5. What is the Climate Action Network? What does it do? The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 365 Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels
6. How do energy efficient appliances, line-drying your clothes and using compact fluorescent light bulbs each help to reduce carbon emissions? But small things add up. Energy efficient appliances use 2 to 10 times less energy for the same level of functionality. Line drying clothes saves 3 to 4 kilowatt hours per load – about 5 pounds of carbon dioxide. Compact fluorescent bulbs use four times less energy and last eight times longer than incandescent bulbs.
7. Why are compact urban living and rural living more energy efficient than sprawling suburbs? Most Americans live in urban areas, forming huge hot spots of energy consumption. But while rural residents use less energy overall greater self reliance on local food, and water resources and fewer short trips on congested roadways lead to lower energy requirements relative to sprawling suburbs.
8. What are carbon offsets? It’s a financial instrument aimed at a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases. The money is invested in projects that reduce carbon emissions including renewable energy, forest protection, and energy efficiency projects endorsed by leading conservation organizations.
9. Why does eating meat require more energy than eating plants? It’s the process to slaughter the livestock, to keep it chilled and fresh from bacteria’s
10. How do food miles and food processing and packaging play a role in a person’s ecological footprint? How do personal and community gardens help alleviate this? If everybody would help by eating more fruits and vegetables rather than more meats, it would help by not as much of demand for slaughter of livestock and more demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. Buying fresh local foods from farmers markets and other locally owned sources or natural foods markets reduces these impacts. A study shows if homes or communities have their own garden they can save $500 to $1200 worth of produce per year to a family's diet – a big difference for low-income families.
11. What is a “food footprint?” What is a “housing footprint?” It is based on ecological footprint, due to food production. This is a measure of the environmental impacts of food production. Household water use also takes water from other beneficial uses such as irrigation or in-stream flow for fish and wildlife.
12. What construction and design features contribute to green buildings? It is practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort
13. Finish the following statement: Energy is required to delivery and treatment fresh water. We can reduce our water footprint by installing water saving features and adopting water conservation habits.
14. Describe two benefits of “green” cleaning products. Greening your work environment saves money and resources while keeping employees healthier. It also lets people know that these products are helping the environment free from harmful pollutions.
15. What is planned obsolescence? How can we counter it? A manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period. To avoid this, by buying products that don’t have a short lifespan. The faster we buy new items, the faster we deplete resources and the more likely it is that we are exceeding the Earth’s regenerative capacity.
16. What are the five environmental and economic benefits of recycling? By processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution and lower greenhouse gas emissions
17. Click the “Reduce your footprint” link at the end of the survey and write a one-paragraph plan for how you intend to reduce your footprint. Your plan should include a list of behaviors you are committed to changing. Ideally, I would like you to select at least one behavior from each of the seven categories on the “Reduce your footprint” page that you are going to work on.
I can help reduce my footprint by riding my bike to work instead of driving, it would take me longer time to work but it would save on the environment as well as a money expense. I already use energy saver light bulbs as well as a washer/dryer, but I could possibly look into weather proofing my home. With my family they need the lights on for everything even when its brightly sunny outside, so im constantly turning off all the lights when not needed, so I can inform them to save the planet and not use so much energy of having every single light on when not needed, it saves the planet as well on the electricity bill! We already recycle cans and plastic goods as well as glass products, but I wasn’t aware of the batteries so I can start recycling those from now on too.
